Pancake Goddess in the House of Boys

ryan offers you a bread-kneading tutorial

Why I find this video so amusing: 1. Kelly: time out, time out, time out 2. Kelly: I'm gonna give you a shot 3. Ryan gives Kelly a 1-second turn And on Kelly's face is chocolate, not a bruise, not that a bruise would really be surprising.

Ryan's birthday

The timing here is pretty pathetic, since he turned five on Feb. 19, but it's not really that different from people who put together a scrapbook or photo album months years after the fact. Right?  

Grammy brought over this festive cake, covered in his favorite fruit (possibly favorite food?).

Family feast - Ryan's menu: hot dogs, mac and cheese, something else I'd remember if I'd written this post in February.

As usual, Ryan did his birthday with glee and ease. None of that high-expectation angst, sugar rollercoaster or late-day meltdown.  It's all joy, all day when Ryan has a birthday. It's been that way every year.

Our sweet friend Sally Dennis came to do a musical, dance-ical activity with the kids, which was right up Ryan's alley. He had friends and cousins to the gym and we made crafts, ate cake, bounced balls and generally did the kind of running around 5-year-olds need to do in February.  

making the best of it

Since December 19, at least one person in the house has been sick in some way. We've had respiratory, intestinal, throat issues, etc.  No one has been terribly sick, but we've all been sick enough to stay in most of the time.  We've all done a lot of this (well, the youngest four of us have)...

The cat is not the only one who appreciates a good nap in the sunny living room. 

The kitchen has been busy.  I saw an idea on a blog (tried to link but I can't find it now for the life of me) to cut foam or heavy paper into shapes and design a robot - very simple cutouts... Instead of attaching them, we put magnets on the backs of each piece (cut up that magnetic calendar the realtor sent us) and built the robot on the fridge. The pieces can be mixed and moved to customize the new robot each time. A great excuse to get out the pipe cleaners and button jar. After the robot, it was decided that a snowman would be fun as well. This kept my crafty 4.5yo busy for over an hour.  

We also got behind in consuming our precious local raw milk.  So I decided to make butter, and (oh, dear internet, how I love you) found some great photos of the process.  I'm sure some of you know - in the scheme of organic food buying, organic butter is so expensive.  This homemade butter-making was a joyfuldiscovery. 

Yes, KitchenAid, I love you too.

And some of the wackiest knitting I've ever done. These "pocketbook" maryjane slippers are so much fun to make, and very quick. I don't know where I found this hideous yarn, but it is actually so horrible I love it, on my feet, in the privacy of my house.  

ctts

After a large glass of smoothie...

Ryan:  Oh man, now I'm hicking-up

updates

K: nursing less (plugged duct/infection to show for that), talking more, daddy-love all the time, can spend long periods at the kitchen sink playing, never forgets his vitamin.

R: scared of the dark and shadows, enjoying the Baha'i children's class - he does so well in situations like this - so compliant and joiner-y, but in a cooperative, contributing way, very different from at home, where we still experience daily surprises. Learning letters, is remarkably quick to understand simple arithmetic, has had a cold for weeeeeks.  Will not blow his nose ever. Planning to be Jedi for Halloween.

JJ: writing a 4-page story for school, starting a tumbling class at X YMCA with his friend E, spending a lot of other time with same seemingly-best friend, although he assures me his "group" at school consists of about 14 friends :-) 

J: still struggling with sleep, working with AR weekly on amazing sculptures, worked last weekend at her studio for the studio tour, maintaining As and Bs.

J and JJ's team finished in 2nd place in rec league soccer this fall - it was SO close! They tied and went into penalty kicks. Great to see the brothers on the same team again - it's been years since they happened to be in the same age groupings for soccer.

E: traveling more than we'd all like, seems to be weathering the financial situation at work, enjoying participating at the Baha'i Center, listening to Marshall Rosenberg, watching the bizarre foods and fighting shows, cleared out our shed (yay!).  

A: injured back, trying out a new meal routine - repetitive but much easier to maintain, enjoying the NVC group and Threshold Choir, absolutely cannot keep up with laundry, setting goals to hang curtains and art by J's birthday, planning to offer some community service in the form of computer help for seniors, considering whether to homeschool with R next year - kindergarten age.

Spinning/knitting: still working on red sweater, spinning about every other day for 20-30 min. Finished these bullseye mittens a couple weeks ago - yes, the color combo is just as horrid in person.

today's goals... so much like yesterday's

empty the box in the green room 

spin at least 15 minutes 

knit 15 minutes 

read NVC chapter 

read 15 pages in WOB 

watch overdue library DVD 

dishes 

laundry - iron and fold 

empty other kitchen bin 

get clean fish water 

buy milk, pickles 

take NVC DVD to library 

call Greg M 

make meal plan to repeat weekly - this is going to be a long process but I am determined to find some meals that are healthier than pancakes and bacon or our version of tuna casserole (the two things that they'll all eat) and that at least 5 out of 6 of us like. Help with suggestions please.

the two-cousin birthday

grace and clover had their 5-year-old birthday parties last week, and we all had a great time.

 

 

That grin on I's face? That was not a lucky shot - he is  that happy the whole time, whenever he plays soccer.

Of course, during present time and cake time, the non-birthday-kids looked something like this...

and this.

The good weather and ideal play space at K's house made it a lovely evening.

busy little boys

 

 

summer eating

It's been such a good summer. For me, the ease of mobility without a young baby is a life-changer. Suddenly I don't mind the day-long outings, even if they involve heat, water play, packing snacks. I'm finding the time and energy to really cook and make use of all the beautiful local foods from our garden, Jamie's intergenerational garden, and our back yard.

 

playing catch up in the blog

A couple of weeks ago, the youngers attended a "Truck Touch" at a local dairy farm.

We also got a new (to us... nearly 100 years old) piano and Jamie began lessons with a new instructor at A. M.

And here is a little before and after for K's first summer buzz.  I think the new look is really sweet in person - he looks kind of unhealthy-bald in this picture, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Last week, we had cousin F here for some outdoor lunch and sleeping over. He ended up staying two nights because the big thunder storms and tornadoes arrived during our first attempt at dropping him off.